Further beyond A few billion light years out
by eppy192
Summary: This story has a new crew and explores the beyond aboard the USS Stargazer-A. Rated T for later chapters to come.
1. The beginning

You know the drill, I don't own any of Star trek, it all belongs to Paramount and other people, none of whom are me. This work is for purely entertainment purposes, I make no profit from it.

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A man in his early forties sat behind a desk cluttered in pads, he had brown, unruly hair and a stern face, his demeanour suggested that if approached you risked his temper. Captain Dreason sat behind a desk reviewing all the applications he had received for first officer, suddenly he stopped dead as he read one of the records, it was an application from Elizabeth Trent. At the academy he and Elizabeth had been best friends, he hadn't been in touch with her for years, he'd watched her career from afar as she disappeared into a covert operation involving the Borg a few years ago but hadn't heard any more since then. He'd just found his new first officer.

A woman in her early forties with light brown hair and a pleasant face that suggested kindness however Commander Trent had suffered enough in the last few months to know that sometimes kindness went out the window. At the moment she was sat in her apartment, only a few days ago she had sent off her application for the job of first officer under Captain Dreason. It was a remarkable opportunity to be on the USS Stargazer-A. It was Starfleet's first transwarp capable starship. Only ten minutes ago had she received notification from command that her application had been accepted, she was going to be the first officer of the most modern ship in the fleet.

Hannah Rollin was by no stretch new to the job. She had been in Starfleet for years and her face portrayed every day of it. She was first officer on the USS Turna she had applied for the position of first officer on the new Stargazer and had just received word that she hadn't got the position but she had been offered the position of Second officer if she wanted it. Although it would be a lower position, the chance to be on this ship was worth it, Commander Rollin accepted the position.

A dignified commander walked through the busy space port in San Francisco towards her transport to the Stargazer suddenly an older commander appeared in front of her she didn't have time to stop and crashed straight into the other woman, nearly sending both of them flying.

"Commander Trent." The woman addressed the dignified commander in a cool voice, which was almost Vulcan.

"I'm sorry, I don't know…" began Elizabeth in a pleasant voice overlooking the woman's coolness

"Commander Rollin, second officer USS Stargazer-A ma'am." Reported Commander Rollin, this is the woman that was chosen ahead of me, thought Rollin, what is the rest of our crew going to be like?

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What did you think worth me carrying on? Please read and review if you do want me to.


	2. The StargazerA

The two officers were flown to the Stargazer together neither had seen it before and both were surprised at the compact and efficient design.

"Wow," thought Elizabeth aloud, "Mark got himself one hell of a ship." Rollin shot Trent a look.

"You know our Captain?" she asked.

"We were friends at the academy." explained Trent. That explains a lot thought Rollin, our Captain only chose her because she's his friend, not because she had the qualifications.

As the tiny shuttle docked with the Stargazer the airlock door slid away and Elizabeth saw a face she had not seen in a long time, Elizabeth stopped dead, but Rollin brushed past her.

"Permission to come aboard Captain." Rollin requested, disturbing Trent's thoughts.

"Permission granted, Commander. Lieutenant Bailey will give you a tour of the ship." Captain Dreason said, ignoring Commander Trent for the moment. Rollin walked down the corridor after the Lieutenant and when she had disappeared from sight the stern faced Captain turned to face Elizabeth.

"Commander, isn't there something you're supposed to ask me?" Dreason asked looking slightly annoyed.

"Yes sir, Permission to come aboard sir." Elizabeth requested very formally.

"Permission granted, Ellie." Elizabeth smiled, this was Mark's pet name for her, suddenly she couldn't control herself any longer, and Elizabeth walked over to Mark and put her arms around him. Dreason looked embarrassed at first then his faced warmed and he became the man she had known at the academy. Mark's professional side kicked in a minute later and he pushed her back and the stern expression returned.

"Want to see the bridge?" asked Dreason.

"I'd love to." She told him and they set off through the ship, talking and catching up on all the years they had missed of each others lives, when they arrived on the bridge it was quite empty, there were just one or two technicians under consoles and a trill man sitting in the first officers chair, Elizabeth looked at Mark questioningly.

"Most of the crew don't arrive till next week, the ship isn't quite finished yet, there are still a couple of bugs to work out of the system, Commander may I introduce our helm officer Commander Fil Ekis, Commander this is Commander Trent, our first officer." The two shook hands, the man had a warm face and looked like a pleasant man.

"Welcome aboard commander." He said, "This is one hell of a ship, you're lucky to be first officer."

"Thankyou commander and from what I've seen of the ship I agree." Elizabeth glanced at Mark and held his gaze for a few moments more than she had meant too, Mark got her message and frowned.

"Commander Trent, if you'd like to follow me." Said Dreason his voice had suddenly become very strict.

"Of course." Said Trent in a pleasant tone, but one look at Dreason had her worried, you did not want to be on the wrong side of him, especially when he was in a bad mood as he seemed to be at the moment.

The two of them entered the ready room and Elizabeth could tell he was mad.

"Commander why are you here?" asked the captain as he sat behind his desk and left her standing on the other side.

"I'm not sure what you mean sir." Replied Elizabeth confused, Dreason heaved a sigh.

"Are you here because I'm here or because you want to be this ships first officer, maybe I shouldn't have chosen you Ellie?" said Dreason.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" asked Trent.

"You don't have to ask me that Ellie, you spoke freely enough to me at the academy, when you were my best friend." He told her.

"Captain, I'm here because this is an amazing opportunity, the chance to be first officer on a transwarp starship." She explained, "I'm also here because I get a chance to be near you, I've missed you, a lot more than I expected to and when I saw I had a chance to be with you again, I took it." Elizabeth had said the last bit very quietly and Dreason was now looking at her trying to understand her, finally he stood up and walked around his desk, so he was right in front of her, he pulled Elizabeth towards him and hugged her.

"I missed you too Ellie." He whispered as he hugged her. "But how we left things at the academy, we can't…" stuttered Dreason, letting Elizabeth know how he felt, something he had never let anyone else know since the academy.

"I know, just friends." Ellie sighed.

"You do realise," said Mark, pushing her back, but now smiling, "that I'm likely to make life twice as hard for you as I do for everyone else." Trent smiled now.

"I didn't know that was even possible." She told him laughing; he smiled then stepped back and became the strict Captain that he was to everyone else on the ship.

"Come on Ellie, I'll give you a tour of the ship." Captain Dreason said leading her out of his ready room and into the turbo lift.


	3. Blast off

A week later all the crew were aboard and the Stargazer-A was ready to leave space dock, the now retired Captain Picard was there as guest of honour to launch the new Stargazer-A.

The Stargazer was going to fly to the Relaran Galaxy and back again at transwarp speed, this it was going to do in less than a day.

"All systems ready." Reported the op's officer a bajoran named Rola Hera. Captain Dreason pressed a few buttons on his console then risked a quick glance at his first officer, they had hardly had time to speak since their reunion last week, both being busy with duties which they were required to perform before the ship could be launched, but now Commander Trent looked at him and smiled, she thought she saw a flicker of her friend appear, before his strict captain façade again returned.

"Release docking clamps." the captain ordered.

"Docking clamps released sir." Trent reported, with the sir Dreason raised an eyebrow, but no one except Elizabeth saw it or the tiny smile that followed.

"Start approach to space dock doors." He instructed.

"Approaching space dock doors." Fil Ekis at helm replied.

"When we reach space I want warp 8 to the edge of the system, then transwarp to Relaran. Is that understood Mr Ekis?"

"Aye Captain." The nervous pilot said.

"We're in space." Trent reported.

"Warp 8." The pilot said.

"Heading 036 mark 5." The navigator reported.

"Full ahead." Dreason confirmed and suddenly, the ship jumped forward with stars streaking past.

"Transwarp." The pilot said.

"Heading 180 mark 4." The navigator said.

"Jump to transwarp in 5…4…3…2…1…mark." Suddenly the ship jumped to transwarp as the screen displayed a map of the different galaxies, instead of the starscape, which at transwarp speeds could harm a human's eye.

"We have transwarp," Reported Commander Ekis, "Wait something's wrong, I can't control the system, helm control off line."

"Commander Hera report." Shouted Dreason over the din the emergency sirens were making, nobody saw in all the panic that Dreason reached for his first officers hand, holding it tightly. Suddenly the ship stopped dead in space.

"I managed to stop the ship Captain, but we're way off course, we're in an unknown galaxy, we've never even sent probes to this galaxy, it's down in the computer as galaxy 525, Captain." The Captain discreetly let go of Trent's hand.

"Can we get back to our galaxy Commander?" the captain asked.

"We burnt out the transwarp drive sir; the computer shows it as non functional." Hera reported.

"Bridge to engineering." Dreason said, Trent could see that he was worried, though she doubted any other member of the bridge crew knew him well enough to see it. "What is you're current status down there Commander?" Dreason asked. The sound of warning bells in Engineering could be heard over the communication.

"We have 16 injured crewmen sir, the transwarp drive needs repairing; the easiest course of action would probably be to rebuild the drive, sir." Commander Sapot, chief engineer reported, even under stress Sapot sounded calm as he delivered his report.

"Do we have the materials on board to rebuild it?" asked Dreason.

"I will be able to replicate some sir, others we will be required to find on nearby planets." Sapot said.

"Transmit a list of the materials we will need to locate to Commander Hera's station and start replicating the others, Dreason out." Dreason ordered, and then he turned to his op's officer, "Commander as soon as you get that list start scanning for the materials in nearby systems. Commander Rollin, Commander Trent my ready room please." Dreason followed his two senior officers into his ready room.

"I think we can agree that our priority is to get back to our galaxy, to do that we will need to rebuild the transwarp drive, are we all in agreement that that is what we should do?" asked Dreason, Rollin nodded, but Trent argued.

"Captain with all due respect how do we know that we're not going to end up farther from our galaxy this time? I think our priority should be to find out what went wrong and how we managed to get here before we try getting home, otherwise we may even end up worst than lost this time." Trent told the captain. Rollin was shocked, how could Trent dare question her superior officer? But even more shocking to Rollin was when Dreason thought for a minute then nodded his head in agreement, before signalling engineering to tell them their new priority was finding out what went wrong with their second priority being repairing the transwarp engine.

"Commander Rollin could you excuse us for a minute please?" asked the Captain.

"Of course sir, I'll be on the bridge." Rollin said before leaving the ready room. As soon as Rollin had left Mark turned to Elizabeth.

"I'm sorry about what happened when the ship was in transwarp; I just thought we wouldn't make it." Dreason said awkwardly but Elizabeth was smiling at him.

"Don't worry about it sir, it was nice to know you were there." Elizabeth told him.

"Ellie I'm always here for you," he told her, "and good thinking about finding out what happened with the transwarp Commander, but what the hell were you talking about when you said 'With all due respect', I know you were saying I was wrong, but you don't have to say stuff like 'with all due respect, not to me Ellie, Understood Commander?"

"Aye sir." Elizabeth answered; Dreason sent her another look and smiled.

"My name is Mark to you Ellie, at least when we're on our own." Dreason told her, Ellie nodded and turned to leave as Dreason followed her out of his ready room.


	4. Complication

"Commander Hera have you found those materials we need yet?" Dreason asked as he walked onto his bridge.

"Aye sir, however we have a problem." Hera said.

"What's that Commander?" Dreason asked.

"We've detected an industrialised civillisation only 2 light years from our current postion."

"Dreason to Sapot, what's the status of you're investigation Commander?" he asked.

"We have discovered evidence that someone tampered with the transwarp drive sir."

"Good work Sapot, carry on Dreason out." Dreason instructed.

"Hera, do the planets where you found the materials have any signs of life on?" Dreason demanded after thinking for a moment, their priorities had just changed again; they had to fix their engines and find out what was wrong with them quickly before they caused large amounts of damage to this society. What would happen if they were recognised as strangers?

"Yes sir, I found the materials on 3 different planets, 1 of which has signs of a civilization equal to earth around 400 years ago."

"Are there any other planets with the materials on that planet within scanning range?" Captain Dreason asked.

"Negative Captain." Hera replied.

"We'll have to make do with this planet, set a course commander." Dreason ordered.

"Captain, we can't go near this planet, we would be breaking the prime directive about fifty times over." argued Trent.

"Commander we need to get these materials, do you think it will cause more damage to pass ourselves off as members of their civillisation or to go mining on their world with tools they may never have seen anything like before in their lives." Dreason shouted.

"Captain I object to…" began Trent.

"Objection noted Commander." Dreason interrupted.

"Captain…" started Trent again but Dreason turned to face her.

"Commander if you cannot be quite I will remove you from my bridge. Is that clear?" thundered Dreason.

"But Captain…" Trent said defiantly.

"Commander, my ready room now!" Dreason said he was going red. Trent walked very calmly into Dreason's ready room, she had only had him mad at her once before and it hadn't been pretty. "What the hell do you think you're doing commander?" shouted Dreason.

"I'm sorry sir, but I don't think you're choosing the right course of action." Trent explained.

"Is it you're place to say what course of action I should take?" Dreason asked; Trent could see he was calming down a bit now.

"Yes sir, as first officer it is my job to offer my opinion on how I believe you should proceed." Trent answered Dreason turned to face her and stared at her for a few moments.

"Commander I have no problem with you offering opinions, but on the bridge then you were arguing with me, in front of the whole bridge crew, how does that look to them?" Dreason said to Trent. "If you wish to offer your opinion in future Ellie, then please ask to see me in my ready room, where we can discuss what we should do. OK?"

"Of course Captain, I'm sorry," Ellie apologised as she sat on his couch next to him, "I embarrassed us both." Mark put his hand on Ellie's and she looked up at him.

"I wouldn't let you speak would I? I guess that argument was at least partially my fault wasn't it." Dreason admitted.

"Hadn't we better go back on the bridge Captain?" Elizabeth suggested.

"I suppose so Ellie." Mark said standing up and walking onto the bridge with Elizabeth close behind.

"Captain we're coming into orbit around the planet with the civilisation on it, they have an extensive satellite network, however the cloak appears to be effective." Hera said from her place at op's.

"Dreason to Sickbay," Mark said tapping his comm badge.

"Go ahead Captain," came the voice of the CMO.

"Please begin preparation of two disguises for the away team that will be beaming down to the planet shortly."

"Aye Captain."

"Well Commander, I think we have a mission to plan." said Dreason, leaning back in his chair contemplating the breach of the prime directive that he was going to be responsible for.


End file.
